In related art, with a digital still camera or the like, for the purpose of saving a pickup image, not only a flash memory incorporated in a body of the digital still camera but also external record medium such as detachable flash memory or a hard disk or the like have been used. Even though these external record media have storage capacities increasing year by year, due to limitations, a need has arisen for image data to be transferred to an outside information record device such as a computer or the like whose memory is used up and, subsequently, an available memory to be ensured upon deleting data recorded in the external record medium.
However, in such a case, for merely backing up data, the computer has to be started up to allow the body of the digital still camera or an external record device, demounted from the digital still camera, to be connected to the computer. In general, it takes time in startup of the computer. Therefore, the backup for data has encountered troublesome work for a user.
Lately, proposals have heretofore been made to provide a mount or a cradle (hereinafter referred to as a cradle) that has not only a function to charge a rechargeable battery of the body of the digital still camera but also a function to transfer data, recorded in the flash memory or the like incorporated in the digital still camera, to the computer when the body of the digital still camera is placed in a given position or when the rechargeable battery of the body of the digital still camera begins to be charged.
However, even if such a cradle is used, since data cannot be transferred unless the computer has started up, the cradle is equivalent to a mere charging device with the resultant difficulty in addressing troublesome work that needs to start up the computer.
Therefore, an external record device has heretofore been proposed which incorporates record medium with high capacity such as a hard disk or the like to simply back up data of still images and moving images picked up by an image pickup device (see, for instance, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-209175 (FIG. 1)).
The invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-209175 contemplates that as the image pickup device is attached to the external record device, the external record device reads out data of the still images and the moving images from a record medium incorporated in the image pickup device to allow retrieved data to be written to record medium incorporated in the external record device while erasing data of record medium incorporated in the image pickup device.
However, the image pickup device of the related art mentioned above is based on the premise that a single piece of the image pickup device picks up an image and data of the picked up still images and moving images are saved in the record medium of the image pickup device upon which when needed to erase saved data backup, the image pickup device is mounted to the external record device, and no consideration has been taken to perform the image pickup under a status mounted to the external record device.
Accordingly, when picking up the image pickup, the image pickup cannot be done at a time till a memory of record medium of the image pickup device. Therefore, a need has arisen to back up data, recorded once upon interrupting picking up the image, in the external record device for each reduction in the remaining memory capacity of record medium to a record capacity needed for newly recording data.
In such a way, with the related art image pickup device, record medium has a limited capacity for picking up the image and when intended to erase data after backing up data of saved still images and moving images in the external record device, the shooting has to be interrupted once. Therefore, an issue arises with the occurrence of a lack in mobility. Further, due to the limitation in the capacity of the record medium of the image pickup device, an issue arises with a probability suffering from a difficulty in continuously shooting of still images with high capacity and picking up moving images with high capacity.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to enable picking up an image while concurrently backing up data without causing interruption even if a remaining available memory of a record medium of an image pickup device becomes less than a record capacity needed for newly recording data of still images and moving images.